Children, Race/Ethnicity, and Marital Wealth Accumulation in Black and Hispanic Households

Keywords

wealth inequality, family, parenthood, adulthood

Abstract

As wealth inequality in the United States continues to grow, family characteristics have become increasingly important to researchers' understanding of changes in wealth inequality over time. One aspect of adulthood is having children and transitioning to parenthood, which can affect numerous outcomes, including wealth trajectories. Due to widely-recognized structural constraints, black and Hispanic households generally have fewer financial resources to draw upon when they begin to have children. Therefore, existing racial/ethnic wealth inequality may increase when minority families have children. We use growth curve modeling techniques to analyze a sample of continuously married couples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort. Results suggest that children affect family financial resources in different ways and that this effect varies by race and ethnicity. These findings improve our understanding of how a similar family event-having children-within families contributes to divergent financial outcomes between families.

Original Publication Citation

Painter II, M.A. & Shafer, K. (2011). “Race/Ethnicity, Children, and Household Wealth Accumulation.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 42(2): 145-169.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2011

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/7197

Publisher

Journal of Comparative Family Studies

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS